


Impartial

by writershapeholeonthedoor



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Awkward Romance, F/F, Fluff, Gen, Light Angst, Love Confessions, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-07-29 04:34:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20076220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writershapeholeonthedoor/pseuds/writershapeholeonthedoor
Summary: Six knocks at the door that wake Root up.





	Impartial

**Author's Note:**

> Send me a prompt at Tumblr, @imagineheadcanonsarea.  
English is not my first language, so please let me know if there's anything wrong.

I.Fusco

It was the loud and angry sound of knuckles hitting her door that woke Root up. Even if she told herself not to let her hopes get too high, she was still disappointed when she opened it and found Fusco standing there. He had both hands in his waist, stiff posture like he didn’t actually wanted to be there, even if his eyes held a softness that made her stomach clench.

“You look like shit.”

“I’m sick.” It was a weak lie at best, but that was the one she was going with. It has been three days, she’s actually surprised it took that long for someone to show up at her doorsteps.

“Look like it’s infectious.” He said pointedly, arching one eyebrow. “Shaw looked like she just survived Hell when I saw her earlier today at the subway station.” Fusco didn’t had to say it aloud, they both knew what he was implying. She took one step to the side so he could slide inside her apartment, but he didn’t moved. “How could you not tell me? Sounds like something the team should know.”

Root shrugged. “It would make things weird.” She didn’t clarified if it was going to be weird for them or to the team, but she honestly didn’t know the answer for that either.

Lionel looked her up and down, searching for something, before finally taking one step foward. “I don’t care if you’re into woman or whatever. I do care when you date someone and don’t tell me about it. I think that you, from all people, deserve to be happy.” He allowed the smallest grin while sitting at one end of Root’s couch. “Should I start to search for places to hide a body?”

* * *

II.Reese

The gentle knocks took a while to wake her up. Root tried to sooth down her hopes, but her heart still dropped to her stomach when she opened the door and found Reese. He looked less happier than Fusco had been, but he had more things in his hands than air.

“I got you thai food. We don’t have to talk about it.” He promissed, hovering awkwardly at her door, until Root finally allowed him to get inside.

She didn’t bothered to show him around or find forks for them to eat, Root simply flopped in her couch, leaving no room for Reese to join her there. Instead, the tall man reached out one of the takeout’s box and a fork he had found in her kitchen after opening a couple of drawers, before sitting in the floor in front of the couch, holding his own food. They ate half of the food before Root decided to talk.

“I would talk about it if I knew how to say it.” She shrugged. “Besides, I don’t think it’s going to do any good.”

“I’m sure I once read in some fortune cookie that you can’t keep things bottled inside.” Reese sighed, moving his food around for a while. “I would offer you something to drink, but this is your house.”

She rolled her eyes, slightly amused. “I have some wine somewhere.” The hacker didn’t moved while Reese opened and closed the cupboards until he found the half empty bottle and some glasses.

He poured them some wine. “Want to go from the start?”

“There’s really no mistery.” Root suddenly didn’t felt like eating anymore. She sighed heavily, putting her almost empty takeout box in the coffee table, before lying down and crossing her arms. Her eyes didn’t met Reese, not that he was too surprised by it. “One day I opened the door and Shaw was there.” She looked at her feet, wiggling her fingers. “I don’t know why that was the day she decided to come here or why... why she came here.” The last part was barely a whisper.

Reese took a deep breath, almost like he was tired, and looked at her. “She was in love with you, that’s why. Even I noticed it.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? It would be good to know I wasn’t just wasting my time barking to some empty tree.”

“You were in love with her, she was in love with you. You wanted to talk about it, she didn’t want to talk about it.” He shrugged. “Say something wouldn’t lead anywhere good.”

“Oh.” Root’s voice sounded a little distant, like she was listening, but her mind wasn’t actually there. She thought back to the day she was woken up by a knock and it was Shaw. Not Fusco, not Reese. Shaw.

“Don’t worry too much. I saw how things changed between you too, we can all see it... I – we – want you to be happy.” Reese placed his empty takeout box beside her’s, before getting up. He squeezed her anckle and gave her a pointedly look. “At least I don’t have to worry about her killing you because you're flirting anymore.” He smirked when Root let a quiet laugh. “You said something that made her laugh.”

“Huh?”

“The day it happened.” He explained. “I remember, because you both showed up to work filled with bruises and bite marks.” She didn’t blushed, but he wasn’t surprised. “You said something that made her laugh and she got this weird look on her face. Then she stormed out like she was after Satan.”

“Sounds like Shaw.”

“It does.”

* * *

III.Finch

Somehow she knew she should ignore the knocks, so Root only rolled in her bed for as long as she could, but the tapping showed no signs of stoping. Even if she knew by now that she shouldn’t be hopeful, she still was let down when she found Finch at the other side, pushing his glasses up his nose. He was holding a laptop with both hands and needed to clean his throat a couple of times.

“I’m not doing this with you, Harold.”

“Five minutes, that’s all it’s going to take.” He promissed with a awkward nod.

Root sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Why?”

“Reese and Fusco said it was my turn to come.” Finch looked very very uncomfortable and Root could understand why – she felt it too. She was good with teasing him and all, but talk about her love life with him seemed to just take a step out of the limits. “I made a Power Point.” Like that was going to make her anymore propense to let him inside.

The hacker looked at him for a while, before stepping aside so he could get inside her apartment. “Don’t.” Root quickly said when she saw he was serious about the Power Point.

Finch cleared his throat, arranging his glasses again, before turning to look at her, away from his laptop. “Okay, I know it anyway.” He took a deep breath and she instantly knew it was going to be as hard to hear as it was hard for him to say it. “Shaw is a complicated person.” Root raised one eyebrow. “I know, is just... There’s a lot of bad things that happened and it’s hard for her to trust people most of the time.”

“I know.” She did – everyone did. Finch didn’t had to cross town to tell her that.

“She has this disorder and...”

“Harold.” He stoped and looked back at her. Root was only looking at him with a blank expression. “I _know._”

He nodded. “Okay.” Finch looked at his computer and it seemed to calm him down a little, just the enough to collect his thoughts. “Do you know that she loves you?”

Root felt her eyes burn while her vision started to get misty, but she forced everything back inside with a gulp. “She might, yes.”

“Don’t act on things that make her happy is just Shaw’s modus operandi.” Finch looked at the floor for a second. “If Samaritan found out she loves you, you become another thing they can use to hurt her. Samaritan, a number, anyone.”

“I know.” Root sighed and crossed her arms. They were standing in the middle of her living room and her feet was starting to hurt, but she was not going to let Finch find an excuse to show her his Power Point. “I just wanted her to understand I can take care of myself.”

“She knows that, Ms. Gro-Root. Root.” He said her name again with more intention and she almost gave him a smile. “She’s just being stubborn right now, like she always is. Like you both are. Just... don’t be stubborn too this time.”

* * *

IV.The Machine

It wasn’t actually a knock, but her mind kept telling her there was someone at the door. Every now and then the sound of knocking would sound inside her head like a urgent pounding and it wouldn’t be gone until she got up and went check it. Root took almost an hour to realize it wasn’t just some delirious she was having, it was actually happening inside her head.

“What do you want?” She scoffed, rolling in bed so her face was against the mattress, her voice sounding muffled. There was no response, not that she expected one in the first place. “Let me sleep, goddamn it.”

It happened five more times before Root had enough of it. She closed the door angrily and placed one hand against the side of her head. “I’m serious, this is not funny. From all things I did for you, I thought we could agree I deserve some vacations.”

This time a mecanic voice spoke. “Need two back.” Root was used to the Machine’s inability to form normal phrases. “Work it out.”

Every inch of Root’s body went still when a cold shiver ran down her spine. “Screw you. You’re a computer, you know nothing about what’s going on. You want us back to work? Well, this might shock you a little bit, but last time I checked, and believed me I looked everywhere, there was no stamp in her, or mine, ass saying ‘Property of The Machine’.” Her fists clenched at her sides, but her words remained calm and quiet. There was no point in screaming, even if she really wanted to. “You’re my boss or whatever, you know everything about me, good and bad, but I won’t let you control this part of my life too because this is not your fucking business.”

A pause. A very long pause. “Fight.” Nothing followed that single word and Root stayed the rest of the night trying to breakdown what that meant. Fight for what? Fight for who?

* * *

V.Carter

That time a loud pounding woke her up. It was the fifth time it was happening, but the disappointment in her guts was as bitter as the first time when she opened and there was someone else standing in her hallway. Carter looked angry, standing there like Root had stolen her kitten.

“Call Shaw.” She left no rooms for discussions. “She thinks you’re dead.”

“What?” The woman’s word came out too fast for Root to understand it imediatly. The hacker was surprised that Carter – _Carter_ – was the one doing the intervention, or whatever that was, with her.

“I don’t know what part of what I just said is confusing.” The woman crossed her arms in her chest, managing to look five times angrier. “Shaw thinks you’re either dead or that you hate her now. _Call her_.”

“Why are you here?”

“Because the Universe hates me.” Carter shrugged. “And because Reese wouldn’t shut up about it, so I decided to take a look by myself.”

Root frowned. “Sorry I didn’t showered for you.”

“Not you.” The black woman rolled her eyes. “Even though the shower would have been a good choice.” She shook her head, rolling her eyes again. “Just left the subway station. Shaw’s losing it and it shows. Do you understand that? Shaw is going nutts and we can _see_ that.” Root understood her concern, because Shaw never allowed her emotion to show. “I wish I didn’t had to get involved in this lesbian drama, but God knows how stubborn you two can be. So here’s what you’re going to do: you’re going to shower, you will put some nice clothes on and I will take you over there and you better solve this out or I will smack a bitch.”

* * *

VI.Shaw

Root could barely feel her own knuckles hitting the apartment door, but the gentle tap could be heard clearly. “Shaw?” She kinda of wished that Shaw wouldn’t had left the subway station after Carter had left to get her, because Root didn’t had to knock there. In Shaw’s apartment, she had to wait for her to open it and the chances of that happening were very thin. “I’m just going to keep talking to myself if you don’t let me in.” Nothing. Root sighed. “I don’t know what I did.” Her voice became a whisper, almost a whimper, but she didn’t cared about it. “We were having so much fun and you just left.”

They were. It had been two months since Shaw knocked at her door, they were having dinner, eating pizza while set in the floor in front of the television, talking about things. Root told her some funny story about when she hacked her school’s computers and changed everyone’s grades to form a poem, about the time she broke her arm while trying to push a boy out of the swing because he didn’t let her play after his time was over, about the time she found out Fusco’s had a poodle named Fluffy when he was a kid. They were laughing – Shaw was laughing. And then Root said something about them getting a dog since they both loved Bear, but Finch wouldn’t allow them to keep him, and Shaw raised to her feet and left before Root could even understand what was going on.

That was four days ago. Root had called in sick the next day after staying up all night trying to talk with Shaw, calling her and sending thousand of texts, and that was the first time she was leaving her house since Saturday. She heard from the others that Shaw spent the days working, chasing number after number, not taking a break.

“Lionel threatened to kill you.” Root tried, sighing. She felt like sitting down by the door, but the floor under her feet was not clean for sure. “John tried to speak for you, Harold did a scale model of your brain, the Machine said she’s going to fire us and Carter threated to kill me.”

Root was just starting to believe that she was going to be ignored for longer, before she heard a muffled voice coming behind the door. “She did?”

“Yes.”

“... I told Finch.” That was quite surprising. Reese told her he had figured it out just by watching them and Fusco probably did the same, but Shaw actually told Harold about them. “He was mad you weren’t answering your phone.” Another long pause. “Thought we should let him know we’re not... partial about each other.”

Root smiled lovingly, resting her forehead against the doorframe. “Are we still impartial about each other?” She bit her bottom lip while waiting for her answer.

Instead of words, Shaw turned the door handle and the smallest crack showed. Root didn’t walked inside, but she also rested her hand against the door handle, feeling the wooden door between them like it was living fire.

“Sameen, please.” Root sighed again. “I didn’t wanted to scare you or anything. We don’t have to get a dog, I was joking. Just, please... please, open the door, I...” She took a deep breath, ignoring the large ball stuck in her throat. “Sam, let me in.” The hacker was talking more than just inside her apartment and both knew it. They could hear, clear as daylight, in the deeps off her voice, attached to every syllable, the raw plead.

Felt like hours, but it was probably just a minute or so, until the door’s handle turned in her hand and Root let it go. The door slowly opened just a crack, enough to Shaw look at her through it. She looked fine, her clothes were clean, her eyes weren’t red or swollen like Root’s, and the marine looked like she just left the shower – Root know that she looked completly different, a complete mess. But Shaw’s eyes told her a different story, they were the perfect image of caos, storm, despair.

“The door is a little obstructed.”

“It’s okay, I have a very large patience level.” Root smiled, feeling relieve in every nerve of her body. They would be fine. Four days in Hell was not enough to break them.

Shaw frowned. “No, literally. The door is blocked.” She tried to push it open, but the door indeed didn’t moved, she just made a loud scratching noise.

“Oh.” Root breathed, looking down to see that the door was stuck at the floor for some reason.

“Yeah, I closed it at Fusco.” That was the only explanation Shaw gave her and, honestly, she didn’t needed much more.


End file.
